Paul Gauguin: The Breakthrough into Modernity

«In 1889, Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) organized the independent «L’Exposition de Peintures du Groupe Impressionniste et Synthésiste» at Café Volpini with his followers on the occasion of the Paris World’s Fair. The French artist presented an extraordinary portfolio of prints in this framework for the first time: the so-called «Suite Volpini», an ensemble of eleven lithographs printed on radiant yellow paper. The publication examines the year 1889 as a defining moment in Gauguin’s development in which his autonomous, revolutionary new painting style and the central motifs of his work were unmistakably formed. It reconstructs the Volpini exhibition in the process, demonstrating the radicality of the works produced by Gauguin’s artistic circle. The «Suite Volpini» – for Gauguin a visual résumé that was intended to advertize his role as the founder of a new style – will be comprehensively described and seen in the context of the artist’s related paintings, woodcuts, ceramics, prints, and drawings.»